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cbminfo
12-15-2004, 07:35 AM
I've only played with a few games. I thought Leisure suit larry was the only thing available for PC's as text/graphic games.

To see what is avail now. I tried to find something that looked interesting at Walmart. and CSI was the only thing that didn't have wizrds swords or dragons in it.

My previous experience with adventure games extends to a failed attempt to get thru Deja Vu 1.

I agree only partially with the review by Laura MacDonald. She sounds like a pro at this so my take on it is as a 1st time user..

I've been watching csi's since they started. The graphics weren't as great as those that came with my AIW video card. Live moving changing flowing Lava, etc.. But I had no complaints. As for animation, they were fairly stiff.

The interface. All tucked neatly at the bottom of the screen. Simple to find and use, though I'd have probably swapped the order of tools between discover, and acquire. The discover tools were most definitely used more than the acquire. I carried the flashlight and magnifier everywhere. I used the hand maybe once or twice, the mouse hovered over the center of the toolbar, not the far left, you get the idea.

There may have been more than 1 version of csi miami released I have no idea, but she was talking about acquiring all the evidence instead of having to root thru all the clues and see what you missed,. [watch the stars on the evidence, I didn't submit a key piece and got totally jammed up.]
That was done in the 2nd game. I intend to try the other stories with less help and the highlit things off.

She mentioned other games where the helps highlighted every single piece so you didn't have to return to the scenes over and over again to find what you missed. I'd have been satisfied if the highlight helps just disappeared altogether once all the evidence had been collected from a site. That was my biggest complaint. No clues, but I still have the green arrow telling me there's evidence here.
Digging around in the dark in pixels, is no more fun than digging around in the dark anywhere else.
Particularly if you don't know you've found all there was to be found.
But then I guess that's what a mystery is. If you don't know what you're looking for, how could you know when you have it all..
For the beginner an arrow being off when all evidence is found would be a good frustration blocker. Give you a sense of accomplishment even if there'd be no basis in reality for it. You're done searching for evidence when you have a conviction.

As for my rating. I'd give it 5 stars out of 5. I was really impressed.

fov
12-15-2004, 08:44 AM
Thanks for giving another perspective!

I haven't played any of the CSI games, myself (but I have played Leisure Suit Larry :P) I don't know how many adventures Walmart usually carries... There are so many great games out there, often they're not available at retail though. You should look online... even Amazon is a good source.

-emily

LauraMac
12-15-2004, 06:23 PM
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on CSI: Miami very much.

As an alleged "pro" (and to this date I think I have more to learn about covering any given game well) .. I may discuss things in a certain way - but that is never a replacement for one of the best views on any game. Those of someone who has just finished playing it and just puts forth their honest opinion.

I always like it when they notice things I completely glossed over or failed to mention. Because they may hit on the very thing that matters most to other gamers. :)

Please keep posting your views and welcome to adventure gaming :D

cbminfo
12-17-2004, 05:43 AM
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on CSI: Miami very much.

As an alleged "pro" (and to this date I think I have more to learn about covering any given game well) .. I may discuss things in a certain way - but that is never a replacement for one of the best views on any game. Those of someone who has just finished playing it and just puts forth their honest opinion.

I always like it when they notice things I completely glossed over or failed to mention. Because they may hit on the very thing that matters most to other gamers. :)

Please keep posting your views and welcome to adventure gaming :D

Well, I posted because in a way [with only one game under my belt previously and a failure at that] being completely new to it, I've seen it happen more often than not on the web, if you can acess the web, you're assumed to be a computer geek with a masters degree in everything. When in reality you can barely find the DEL[iver] key.

Now that I've run thru all of them, my rating still stands. Though I got jammed up on every game with the exact same problem. I had collected all the evidence with just the newbie settings, but forgot to submit it to the lab.
Something ubisoft might keep in mind for future versions.

It's obviously an adult game, and it should reflect that. Taking into account forgetfulness, and poor vision. ie: if I have a napsack full of evidence and go to the lab, I still don't have the definitions of the different colored labels memorized yet so whether it's been submitted or not should maybe NOT have any label on it until after it's been submitted.

Another gripe was, I had the evidence, submitted it, got the search warrant, and went to searching. only to be blocked until I visited the suspect to serve the warrant.

Minor gripes, no idea really on how to make it simpler without magnetic arrows for next step. ie: got warrant, goto site, magnetic arrow serves warrant.

The minor gripes meant I needed to use a cheat to get thru it. More or less as a written document on what I'd already done. And to double check it. And that wasn't what I really wanted, but I also didn't want one more game that was stuck in limbo for some reason I had no idea why.

So if you are an adult that forgets things, and can't read the small print on a contract, take notes extensively. So you have a clue as to what you've already done.

Will I go after another csi miami ? Most likely yes.